Freshwater troubleshooting

ahiggins

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Hi all!
My boyfriend has a freshwater catfish tank that has or had the following inhabitants:
Dead over the last 2 days
3 rose line shark
1 red tail shark
2 Pictus catfish
Still in the tank and seemingly unaffected
3 glass catfish
2 upside down catfish

this all started when he bought the 2 pictus and roseline home. Over about 3 days they became completely covered in tiny white spots (pictus more so). I assumed ich so he started treating everyone with imaginarium parasite remedy and seachem stability today. Mind you, his tank is new and it’s been sitting between 0.5 and 1ppm ammonia. We did a 50% water change and it’s back to 0-0.5 ammonia. He’s upset and I know next to nothing about freshwater fish. QT isn’t an option but we have nothing else alive in the tank, it’s all decor. He doesn’t think it’s ich because there are white puffy growths in the tank.
parameters:
Ammonia-0-0.5
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Do you guys/gals have any idea on where to go next?
 

Auquanut

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Don't know if this will help, but here goes.
Sounds like ich. I introduced it to my 20 gallon tall about 10 years ago. It took hold quick, and killed several fish. The remaining fish were in bad shape. On the advice from a member of a FW forum, I increased temp to 86 degrees and kept the lights off for 2 weeks. Also reduced feeding to a bare minimum. The person who gave the advice said that I would see results fairly quickly, but leave the temp up and lights off for the whole 2 weeks. He was right. I did that, and managed to save the remaining fish. I still have 2 albino cory's and a tetra that survived the ordeal.

I think the white puffy growths may be a bacterial reaction to the elevated ammonia in the tank. You might add some Prime to neutralize the excess ammonia and do some water changes.

As I said, don't know if it will help, but it worked for me. That's been a long time ago. You may want to research it before trying this method.
 

Yazannreef

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I own both salt and fresh and here is my suggestions:
Increase your temperature gradually to 86 to the extreme 90( watch your fish behavior as you do this). Ich in fresh water cycle out and when it free swimming it cannot handle high temps so it dies.
As far as existing fish that have Ich the ones that survive it normally build an ammune system against it. It will fall of them and will attach to substrate and multiplies before it attacks but with high temps it will die off.

Iry to mix freshwater garlic.with your fish food and see if they eat. If they do great if not the chance of them fighting it is slim.
 

Lyss

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In addition to raising the temp, you can also use aquarium salt -- NOT marine salt, it's this stuff:

Here's some good info about using it, and I did it a while back with a betta: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

Some ppl might not agree but I also swear by Stress Guard. It's not a cure but it has really worked for me to de-stress fish and help with slime coat. Just an added help in situations like this if you can't QT and treat.

Edit: But you really need to keep doing the water changes to get the ammonia in check. I assume the tank was cycled and adding the new fish might have just been too many at once in the new tank? or was the tank not cycled?
 
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ahiggins

ahiggins

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Well, one of the 2 upside downs is dead and the other is dying. Pics of the dead one. Never seen ich do this to skin but they are scaleless. One with flash, one without.
4AF2335B-1F70-4C4C-8479-1C6B96EFDE9F.jpeg

D3C53518-A26D-4140-A22C-3861A43763CA.jpeg
 
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ahiggins

ahiggins

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Thanks for the opinions all-we are both at a loss. Right now we have 3 glass catfish in the tank and they are not phased in the slightest. The 2 upside down were affected by ich about 3 years ago.
 

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